The headshot expresses the look and feel of the actor at a glance, but the actors resume sells the versatility, skillfullness, and success of an actor before he or she ever shows up to the audition. The purpose of this article is to quickly review the central purpose of an acting resume and also what to think about when you are putting one together.

An acting resume is exactly one side of one page, and you will typically have it stapled to the back of your head shot. This single page should represent you as an artist, as an entertainer, as an employee, and as a colleague. In order to do that, you will have to do a little thinking about what the auditioners seem to be looking for. Think about the specific show they going to be doing and try to compare it to their previous work. What sorts of actors do they like to use, and who do they usually cast for the role you want? Once you’ve considered what they’re looking for, the only thing to do is to try and give it to them. Since you’re a professional actor, this should be the easy part.

The main thing to have in mind is that your acting resume should represent the part you want to play more than you as an independent entity. Don’t be afraid to shape your resume to meet the needs of the character. Don’t lie; just list the parts of your acting career in an order which suits the demands of the part. This will hardly take you any time at all to do before each show. The fifteen minutes that you spend per audition could be the difference between your next big break and your next season of waiting tables.

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